Movie Review: Outlaw King

Outlaw King (2018) 

Directed by David Mackenzie 

Written by Bash Doran, David Mackenzie, James MacInnes 

Starring Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Florence Pugh, Stephen Dillane 

Release Date November 19th, 2018 

Published December 1st, 2018 

I had been avoiding watching Netflix’s Outlaw King mostly because I value the director, David Mackenzie so much. The director of the acclaimed Hell or High Water is a director I have high hopes for so when I saw his latest film, Outlaw King, getting less than rave reviews, I decided to keep it sight out of mind. That was easy as my field is, generally theatrical releases and Outlaw King was on Netflix. Eventually, however, my curiosity got the best of me. 

Outlaw King stars Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. Oddly however, when we meet Robert he is on his knee promising fealty to King Edward. Robert was told by his father that the politics of surrender were better than the bloodshed likely if they continued to resist English rule. This changes however, when the legendary William Wallace is captured and killed and his body parts are hung on the walls of a Scottish border city. 

With his father having recently died, and now Wallace, Robert decides it is time to act. His family has a claim on the Scottish throne and he aims to take it. He is opposed by another Scottish family that also has a claim on the throne. Robert would prefer they unite for now and decide on the throne after disposing of the English but when Robert is forced to murder his rival, he knows the fight has begun and that he will not have all of Scotland with him, in fact, they may be just as dangerous as England. 

As you can tell from the mention of William Wallace, this story is in the same vein as Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. Robert the Bruce was a character in that film as well and he was indeed inspired by Wallace’s love of his country to rise up against the English. This story proceeds as if a sequel to Braveheart in some ways, at the very least a continuation of the story. Wallace is killed off-screen in Outlaw King, but his legend hangs over the story, just as Braveheart casts an Oscar winning shadow over Outlaw King. 

That’s a shame because I happen to think Outlaw King is a better movie than Braveheart. Blasphemy, I know, but I have never cared for Mel Gibson’s epic. I found Braveheart loud and boorish and GIbson’s accent was something that I just could not get over. Outlaw King isn’t that much better, Chris Pine’s Scottish brogue is almost as laughable as Gibson’s, but I enjoyed the violent madness in Outlaw King more than I did in Braveheart. 

Chris Pine may not have a great accent but he has a fearsome presence as Robert the Bruce. I enjoyed his straight ahead performance, he rarely appears to be putting on the airs of machismo, he seems genuinely tough. I liked the battle sequences which are raw and gritty and while they may not have the epic expanse of Gibson’s Braveheart, the closeups and the uptight tension of the smaller scale Outlaw King gives the film an authenticity I feel was lacking in Braveheart. 

Nether Outlaw King or Braveheart are movies I ever plan on watching again as neither one is much fun. Director David Mackenzie however, at the very least, compelled me more with his Robert the Bruce story. I was genuinely invested in his story and while I don’t love the movie, I wasn’t compelled to get on my phone and ignore it. Perhaps if you are a fan of historic epics on muddy, bloody battlefields, Outlaw King is the movie for you. 

Movie Review: The Party is Just Beginning

The Party is Just Beginning (2018) 

Directed by Karen Gillan 

Written by Karen Gillan 

Starring Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Matthew Beard, Paul Higgins, Siobhan Redmond 

Release Date (No American Theatrical Release) 

Published January 18th, 2019 

As a Karen Gillan super-fan ever since her days as Amy Pond on Doctor Who, I had been anticipating her writing and directing debut, The Party is Just Beginning ever since she announced the project on her instagram. Gillan has been consistently great at picking material, even her short lived sitcom, Selfie, was criminally underrated. She even picks great blockbusters with a co-starring role in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jumanji. Needless to say, I was fascinated to see what she would do with material of her own. 

The Party is Just Beginning stars Gillan as Liusaidh, an unapologetic party girl who enjoys random, anonymous sex and a whole lot of drinking. In other movies the story would be about reforming her, helping her to find a boyfriend, husband or a male savior but that is not what this movie is about. Liusaidh has some deep emotional wounds but she’s not looking for a savior, she just needs a friend. 

Liusaidh’s deepest hurt came from her best friend, Allistair (Matthew Beard). Liusaidh watched as he went into a dead end relationship with a closeted missionary and watched further as Alistair's father died and he kept pushing away her attempts at comfort. The film features seamless flashbacks that you’re aware are flashbacks but don’t feel forced. The flashbacks are layered into the story and it’s clear that the present we are in with Liusaidh, Alistair is not present. 

Death is omnipresent in Liusaidh’s life as her family is plagued by mistaken calls from people attempting to call a suicide hotline. One day Liusaidh decides to engage with one of the callers and they become friends. The caller is an elderly man whose wife died some time ago and he feels that he is now a burden to his children. The caller fears that his children are going to put him into a home so he has considered taking his life. 

Scenes of Liusaidh talking with the caller are broken up by her random drunken hook ups. These include a nameless man, eventually named Dale (Lee Pace), who she comes to see more than once. Dale is just as troubled as everyone else around Liusaidh. I won’t go into that however, I recommend you see that for yourself. It’s not a spoiler or anything, I don’t think I could spoil The Party is Just Beginning, it’s a mood piece more than a traditional narrative. 

Karen Gillan’s direction of The Party is Just Beginning is exceptionally strong. For a first time out, she has a good hand on the basics and some innovation in the way she seamlessly brings the past and present together in the story. She certainly didn’t give herself an easy task with the script which is uncompromisingly experimental in how it weaves the past and present and doesn’t have anything approaching a traditional narrative. 

The film doesn’t have any major dramatics, there are no revelations and Liusaidh as a character isn’t evolving in a classic arc. As I mentioned earlier, The Party is Just Beginning is a mood piece. The film isn’t about anything traditional, it’s about observing this prickly, depressed and unusual character. You are either up for something unusual or the movie is not for you. I was up for every moment of The Party is Just Beginning. 

I’m a sucker for a good mood piece and I found the depressive, slate gray mood of The Party is Just Beginning remarkably engaging. I fought with the movie, my mind tried to cram it into something I recognized until about half way through when I began to settle into what the movie is, an observation of a character we don’t often see in modern film culture. Liusaidh is singularly human, unique and genuine. She feels real, like someone you have seen somewhere in your life. 

The slice of life here may not be to everyone’s palette. The film owns its depressive air and moody atmosphere. Gillan offers no comforts such as sitcom laugh lines or explosive moments of drama. Scenes you think might erupt simply don’t because such recognizable bits of drama would ruin the remarkably curated mood of The Party is Just Beginning. I feel I am not making the film sound appealing but trust me when I tell you, Gillan holds the screen and, if you’re like me, you will be riveted by her work. That’s the appeal here, observing the artful direction and complex performance. 

I had been waiting for some time for this movie to arrive. I had assumed it would be on Blu Ray and DVD soon and I had been looking out for it. What a terrific surprise it was to find the film streaming on Amazon. It’s a little pricier than a DVD rental but it was worth it. The Party is Just Beginning is a terrific film. The film is a an awesome announcement that Karen Gillan is not merely an appealing actress, she is a true artist and budding auteur. I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

Movie Review: The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ (2004) 

Directed by Mel Gibson

Written by Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald 

Starring Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern, Sergio Rubini 

Release Date February 25th, 2004 

Published February 24th, 2004 

As controversy swirls about Mel Gibson’s intentions in writing and directing his idea of Jesus’ Passion, you could almost forget about the movie itself. That finally changes on Ash Wednesday when the film hits theaters nationwide and everyone can finally see what it is they have been talking about. What they will see is a spectacularly realized period piece, a moving and evocative piece about the ultimate in suffering. Never before has the suffering of Jesus Christ, the man many believe to be the savior of mankind, been so amazingly and brutally realized on film.

Jim Caviezal takes on the tremendous task of playing Jesus Christ. As we meet him Christ is praying in a forest seemingly unaware that his disciple Judas is at the temple betraying him. Soon Judas, with Jewish soldiers in tow, is standing before Jesus and slowly realizing his terrible mistake. After a brief scuffle during which Christ heals a soldier wounded by his disciple Peter, Jesus is arrested and beaten as he is led to the temple. There, his religious opponents, a powerful Jewish sect called the Pharisees, wait to put Jesus on trial.

Actually it’s not so much a trial as a public lynching where Jesus is once again beaten and not surprisingly found guilty, though of what crime we are uncertain. The Pharisee, led by Caiaphas, wants to put Jesus to death but their religion forbids it. However there is no such preclusion in Roman law and so Jesus is brought to the region’s Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov).

Here is where the film’s most controversial element comes in. The charge of Antisemitism against the film hinges, for some, on the portrayal of Pilate. In the Passion plays of the dark ages, when Jews were blamed for Christ’s death, Pilate was played as an ineffectual wavering leader who tried to spare Christ’s life. After 1968 and the Vatican 2 council, the church made clear their official position that the Jews were not responsible and that it was Pilate, the brutal dictator, who was responsible for Christ’s persecution.

It’s very difficult to parse this fairly because both sides have a fair argument. Gibson’s film does portray Pilate as wanting to spare Jesus while a bloodthirsty mob stands by calling for his crucifixion. However, to say that no Jews, especially the Pharisee had nothing to do with it is also intellectually dishonest. Gibson does go on to portray many Jews who decry Christ’s brutal beating by Roman guards, but whether they are enough to combat the charge of Antisemitism will be up to each individual viewer. Do I think the film and Mr. Gibson are Anti-Semitic? No, but I can see where some people might.

The thrust of The Passion of The Christ is Christ’s suffering, from being punched and kicked by Jewish soldiers during his arrest and trial, to his scourging in the Roman courtyard as Pilate tries to placate the mob without crucifying Jesus, to his brutal bloody walk with the cross on his back to the mountaintop and finally his crucifixion. Some 90 minutes of almost non-stop brutal violence. So brutal that many will walk out and some will become physically ill. This is horror-film-quality violence.

This is one of the hardest films that I have ever watched, but the violence is also very compelling and moving. The scourging and whipping goes on and on and when you think it’s over, they roll Christ onto his bloodied back and continue the beating on his chest. The sequence is nine minutes long and even those with strong stomachs will be hard pressed to watch the whole thing.

Jim Caviezal deserves an Oscar nomination simply for all the punishment he takes. His performance is strongest when he is suffering and praying. His performance in scenes where he is not being bloodied is rather typical of the number of actors who have played the role before, beatific, obtuse, but innately intelligent and spiritual.

Gibson’s direction is strong and steady, his camera witnessing the action, unflinchingly embracing the brutality. Academy Award nominee Caleb Deschanel gives the film a lush and beautiful look with night scenes bathed in blue, the temple scenes swathed in a fiery orange and giving the final walk to the crucifixion bright blue in the sky and clear browns of the sand and walls of the buildings. The period details in costume and production design are flawless.

While I have a great deal of admiration for the film, the artistry of it’s production and the compelling story, I couldn’t escape a feeling of distance from the material that I can only attribute to my religious difference with Mr. Gibson. That I am not a Christian put a distance between myself and the deeply emotional connection that seems to be the intended effect of the film. For the devout, The Passion Of The Christ will be an emotional affirmation of their faith. For others, it’s a remarkable artistic experience but not a wholly satisfying one.

Movie Review: The Perfect Score

The Perfect Score (2004) 

Directed by Brian Robbins

Written by Marc Hyman, Jon Zack, Mark Schwahn 

Starring Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johannsson, Darius Miles 

Release Date January 30th, 2004

Published January 29th, 2004 

As a director, Brian Robbins has excelled at mediocrity. From Good Burger to Varsity Blues to his latest film, The Perfect Score, Robbins has mastered the kind of mediocre, inoffensive comedy that kept his TV show Head Of The Class on the air for 5 seasons. To Robbins credit, large enough audiences seem to like mediocre inoffensive comedy, but that still doesn’t mean the rest of us have to like it.

Chris Evans stars in The Perfect Score as Kyle, a high school student whose dream is to become an architect. Kyle's dream would come closer to coming true if he could get into Cornell University's School of Architecture. All Kyle needs is a 1430 on his SATs, something that he has failed at once already. He has a second chance coming up but he's not confident he can do any better.

Kyle's not alone, his buddy Matty (Bryan Greenberg) also bombed the first try at the SATs. He needs a score strong enough to get into Maryland where his girlfriend is waiting for him. There's also Anna (Erika Christensen), a straight-A student who freezes up on big tests and did so on her first shot. Then there is Desmond (Darius Miles), the star of the basketball team with a free ride to any college he wants as long as he gets a minimum score. The desperation of these four kids somehow brings them together with a plan to steal the SATs.

Enter Francesca (Scarlett Johannsen) who had no trouble with her SATs but her father does own the building which houses the testing offices where the answers are. When she overhears what the other four are planning she wants in as a way of getting back at her father. And finally there is Roy (Leonardo Nam) who also just happened to overhear the plan. To keep him quiet he is brought in on the plan, his stoner facade hides the fact that he also already aced the test.

With the crew assembled we move on to the mediocre heist portion of the film, full of dull slapstick and forced couplings as the girls pair off by rote with their cardboard cutout boy of choice. The tone of the film is at times melodramatic, at times moderately amusing but often just mediocre. Director Robbins knows how to point his camera straight ahead, he understands three-act structure, he's definitely read books on screenplay writing and knows how to hit his three big scenes. I didn't say they were three good scenes but there are scenes that appear to matter to this story.

Scarlett Johannsen should have known better. She is clearly the best thing about the film, she has the best scenes, but remember, they are the best scenes in a mediocre movie. This role is a good example of what a star Johannsson is likely to become because it shows she can outshine bad material and make the best of a bad movie. That still does not justify having chosen to make this remarkably mediocre film, one exceptionally below her talent and star power. 

It seems that Brian Robbins and writers Mark Schwan, Jon Zack and Marc Hyman wrote this film specifically for test audiences. The Perfect Score hit's it's marks, it's cast has the perfect look to put on a poster, full on Benetton, Colors of the World, test market science, and the story has all the boring relatable qualities of a teen sitcom. Dull, inoffensive, and unmemorable, The Perfect Score is like filmed Muzak. It melts forgettably into the background, not so bad that you get annoyed but not good enough for you to remember the next day.

Movie Review: The Pianist

The Pianist (2002) 

Directed by Roman Polanski 

Written by Ronald Harwood 

Starring Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox 

Release Date September 25th, 2002

Published September 24th, 2002

I have not enjoyed much of Roman Polanski's work. I found Rosemary's Baby to be somewhat tedious and his "comedy" Bitter Moon--with a naked Peter Coyote--is far more horrifying than anything in Rosemary's Baby. I put my preconceptions about Polanski aside as I sat down to watch his Oscar-nominated work The Pianist and found it to be a profound experience.

Adrien Brody, excellent in Spike Lee's highly underrated Summer Of Sam, is Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who makes money playing Chopin on Warsaw radio. That is, until one day as he is playing, bombs begin to fall and the beginning of World War II overtakes Szpilman's life and that of his family, mother, father, brother, and two sisters. We do not learn much about Szpilman's family except that they are rather typical, loving, bickering, and loyal. As the Nazis overtake Poland, the family is forced from their middle class home and crowded into the small Warsaw ghetto.

The scenes in the ghetto near the beginning of the war are a shocking and brutal sight of people starving and dying in the streets and Jews turning against Jews. Even as some Jews die in the streets, Wladyslaw finds work playing piano for an affluent group of Jews who were able to hold onto enough of their wealth to eat in a cafe with little concern for their brethren who starve in the streets.

Of course, even the affluent would soon learn that no money can save you from blind hatred and, in a short time, all of Warsaw's Jews are loaded on trains and shipped off to the death camps. Wladyslaw escapes the fate of some six million Jews who died in the gas chambers, when a Jewish police officer pulls him off the train and sends him to hide in the ghetto. With help from the Polish resistance Szpilman, spends a good deal of the war hiding in silence behind locked doors. In a poignant and moving scene, Szpilman is hidden in a flat with a piano he cannot play but he mimics playing above the keys and hears the music in his mind.

Most of the film is simply Szpilman, moving from hiding place to hiding place while witnessing history happening around him. He witnesses the Warsaw ghetto uprising, where a group of Jews who were saved from the gas chamber so that they could be employed as laborers, stole guns and fought the Germans for three days before being out-manned and outgunned.

Near the end we do see Szpilman, play the piano again and it is a heartbreaking moment as he seems to have forgotten how to play but quickly picks it up again, and by the end has brought the piece a whole new meaning simply with the courage it took for him to play it. (I'm not familiar with piano music well enough to know what the piece was called but it was very beautiful.) Adrien Brody is truly outstanding in The Pianist.

The Pianist is a very good film. The film is very depressing at times and I mean life-force-sucking, what-point-is-there-to-life-when-there-is-such-cruelty-in-the-world depressing. The subject matter certainly indicates that. Nevertheless, this is a very well made drama about a man who wasn't heroic or necessarily brave. Most of the time he was just lucky. It is rather unique to see a story told from the perspective of a character who isn't an active participant but rather is merely a witness.

Movie Review: The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther (2006) 

Directed by Shawn Levy 

Written by Len Blum, Steve Martin 

Starring Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Beyonce Knowles

Release Date February 10th, 2006

Published February 9th, 2006 

It’s not that Steve Martin is no longer a funny guy but, with his last few pictures, save for the exceptional romantic drama Shopgirl, he has really stunk up the joint. Cheaper By The Dozen 1 & 2 and his teaming with Queen Latifah in Bringing Down the House are vapid exercises in the most tired of cliches. The streak of joyless and mostly humorless comedies continues with The Pink Panther, a flailing cannibalization of the famous Peter Sellers film series.

Inspector Jaques Clouseau (Martin) is the model of ineptitude. As a gendarme of the French police, Clousseau's beat has long been the one place where he could do the least amount of damage. However, when the French national soccer coach (action star Jason Statham in a brief cameo) is murdered and his legendary pink panther diamond stolen from his dead body, it is Clousseau who is given the high-profile case.

The chief of French Police Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) chose Clouseau not for his investigatory skill, but rather to be the public face of the investigation. While Clouseau screws up in front of the cameras, Dreyfus and his team can solve the case behind the scenes and then take all the credit. To insure Clouseau does not screw up too badly, he is assigned a partner, Gendarme Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno), who will attempt to keep Clouseau out of trouble.

Pop star Beyonce Knowles shows up as Xania, an international pop star, solely for the purposes of eye candy and for the soundtrack synergy. The pop star has no relevance to what there is of a plot. Poor Emily Mortimer, playing Clouseau's secretary, is stuck with the thankless role of his love interest, leaving Beyonce to merely provide the film with a marketable pop song for the soundtrack CD.

Once you accept that this is not much of a movie and more of a sketch-comedy exercise, the whole thing comes down to how funny these sketches are. And within that limited criteria, the results are quite mixed. The Pink Panther is exceptionally hit and miss. Certain scenes, such as Clouseau's introduction to Chief Inspector Dreyfuss, are laugh out loud funny. However, the sketches that don't work, like the attempts at bawdy adult humor or Clouseau's dirty-old-man infatuation with Xania, are far more uncomfortable than funny.

Director Shawn Levy is to the comedy genre what Uwe Boll is to sci fi. Okay, maybe he isn't quite that bad. Mr. Boll does set quite a standard, but for the relative ease of his chosen genre, the family comedy, Levy is unquestionably a hack. He can point the camera and capture what is in frame, but he has zero insight into how one scene should flow to the next. Levy has no sense of how to establish a comic or dramatic flow, no sense of storytelling and he has the visual sense of a blind squirrel.

I have not seen the original Pink Panther since the era of the large-form laser disc, so my memory of Peter Sellers as Clouseau is spotty at best. I know from experiencing other films of Director Blake Edwards, who directed Sellers in the original, that he is a far superior director to Shawn Levy, so it seems safe to assume that this new Pink Panther cannot match the original. Call that observation unfair or uninformed if you like, but it's inescapable that Levy is not a great director.

As for comparing Steve Martin and the legendary Mr. Sellers, I have to believe that Steve Martin certainly could match the talent of Peter Sellers. I have seen so much great work from Steve Martin, granted not much recently, that I have to believe him capable of being Peter Sellers' equal. In this film however, with this director, Martin is at a loss to bring this legendary character to life. Martin flails and falls with vigor but it's all for naught. Martin's goose was cooked the second Shawn Levy was named director.

So what, if anything, works in Pink Panther? For Steve Martin being, a complete failure at drawing laughs is impossible. Martin works very hard for what few laughs he gets in this dreadful film, but he does get a few and most come from his teaming with Jean Reno. In a better film, Martin and Reno could have riffed two complete funny performances but in Reno's sporadic screen-time, often cut short for more of Martin's dirty old man bit or the film's bizarre extended James Bond riff, they only have time for a few funny moments, the film's funniest moments.

Also, the teaming of Martin and Kevin Kline as Chief Inspector Dreyfus is inspired, but as with many of the ideas that went into this movie, the teaming is half-baked. Kline has only a handful of scenes with Martin, some very funny, some very much not. Like Martin's teaming with Reno, I watched Martin work with Kline and longed for a different, far better film to feature these two exceptionally talented actors.

The Pink Panther has been marketed as a family movie, so I should warn parents that the family movie tag was one forced upon the film. The Pink Panther was intended as an outrageous borderline R-rated comedy filled to overflow with prurient humor about Viagra, Beyonce Knowles' fine form, and a running gag about Martin and Emily Mortimer getting caught in compromising positions. The Viagra and the leering Clouseau's creepy eyeing of Knowles remain, as does the running gag about Martin and Mortimer, though I understand in much shorter form. These jokes do not belong in a supposed family movie.

Some might say if Sony, the studio that took over the prized property after purchasing MGM, mandated these changes that I should cut director Shawn Levy some slack. I would, if I thought these naughty scenes that are now either truncated or cut completely had the potential to be funny, but I don't see that. Watching what is left of the initial Pink Panther cut, I think Sony likely performed a salvage and rescue rather than the destruction of something bawdy and brilliant. 

Remakes are, more often than not, lazy cash grabs, and while there is little about Steve Martin's performance in Pink Panther that could be called lazy, there is an unquestionable stench of greed and the desire to cash in on a well known property. Worse yet, there is unshakable malaise around The Pink Panther that even Martin at his most manic cannot escape. Whether it comes from director Shawn Levy's poor direction or the general laziness of remakes is debatable.The Pi

Movie Review: The Possession of Hannah Grace

The Possession of Hannah Grace (2018)

Directed by Diederick Van Rooijen

Written by Brian Sieve 

Starring Shay Mitchell, Grey Damon, Kirby Johnson, Stana Katic 

Release Date November 30th, 2018 

Published November 29th, 2018 

The Possession of Hannah Grace stars Shay Mitchell, one of the stars of TV’s Pretty Little Liars, as Megan, a former police officer now working the graveyard shift at a Boston area morgue. Megan lost her partner tragically in a moment when Megan hesitated and didn’t shoot an armed suspect. The moment haunted her to the point of driving her toward alcoholism and abuse of prescription drugs. 

Today, Megan is still haunted by her partner’s death but she’s in AA and recovering. Megan’s sponsor, Lisa (Castle star Stana Katic), got her the morgue job and since she also works there, she keeps a close eye on her newly sober friend. Megan will be spending many long nights by herself in the creepy basement level morgue so having someone to occasionally look after Megan and make sure she hasn’t gone crazy isn’t a bad thing. 

Right off the bat The Possession of Hannah Grace strikes a creepy tone. We start the movie not with Megan but with the titular Hannah Grace who we never really meet. Hannah is possessed by an unnamed and very powerful demon. The demon murders one of the priests during its exorcism by impaling his skull on a cross. The special effect is bad but the impact is strong enough story-wise to indicate the power of the demon. 

The film then, quite interestingly, flashes a graphic that says 3 months later. We’re left to wonder, where is Hannah Grace now? Grace’s father murdered Grace at the end of the exorcism so where has her body been for 3 months? We will get a sense of that eventually but first a handsome and funny EMT, played by comedian Nick Thune, drops off Hannah’s body with Megan in the morgue and the strange occurrences begin to ramp up. 

The Possession of Hannah Grace comes from international director Diederik Van Roojien in his American feature debut. This director’s strengths do not lie with special effects which throughout The Possession of Hannah Grace are hilariously low grade. I mentioned the impaling early on as an example. That scene is cartoonishly, garishly bad with fuzzy images and poor acting combining to get a big laugh without intending to be funny in any way. 

The special effects, thankfully, are only a minor issue. The film makes up for the low grade effects with some top notch creepy sound design. The sound of bones cracking and snapping reminded me of the stomach turning work in the Saw movies. Sean Kennelly was the lead Foley artist on the movie and he deserves a lot of praise for nailing the creepiest sounds for the way Hannah Grace crackles and pops as she stalks the morgue or is being exorcised. 

If you have a weak stomach, the sound design and editing of The Possession of Hannah Grace could be triggering for you. The cracking of bones and the buzzing of flies are amped up to a disturbing degree. Actress Kirby Johnson is a special effect in her own right with the ways she’s able to contort her body and face in the creepiest possible manner. Johnson has a very limited part with minimal dialogue but she manages to make a strong physical impression. 

The Possession of Hannah Grace is not a movie you need to rush out to see in theaters. But, if you are looking for a streaming option once it makes the move to home video, probably in February or so, of 2019, you could do a lot worse than picking this demon based horror flick. The Possession of Hannah Grace is a solid effort in a tired genre that doesn’t recycle every cliche, just a sizable portion of them. 

Lower your standards and turn off your brain and you may find something to enjoy about The Possession of Hannah Grace which is in theaters nationwide this week.